Side Kicks of Sunnydale
by WraithRune
Summary: Side Sequel to Master of Forbidden Seals. An archive of short stories about the side characters of the main story.


**Summary: **This is a spin off fanfiction for the sidekicks that will begin appearing in the Master of the Forbidden Seals. Reading Master of Forbidden Seals first is recommended to get an idea of what's happening.

**Crossover: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU crossover

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters, objects or plots from

Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, Halo, Casper the friendly ghost and Care Bears

This is a work of fanfiction, as such I made no profit out of this.

**Book Title: **Side Kicks of Sunnydale (MFS version)

**Author: **Wraithrune

**Author's Note:** Chapter One is set in the near future of the Master of the Forbidden Seals reality. That's why there is some changes happening in this chapter which hadn't appear in the main story branch yet. And I must admit I only wrote this chapter to get my creative juices flowing, after such a long time of not writing, I am stumped when I tried to write the new chapter for MFS. Hopefully this will get me back on track.

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**Chapter One: Life goes on… 5 Care Bears, 2 Vampires and a moral dilemma**

The Summers' house stood dark and silent as were all the houses in the area of that neighborhood at this hour of the night, only the lights in the kitchen was lit. Buffy was out with the rest of the gang on her daily patrol, leaving Dawn asleep in her bed upstairs as Joyce waited nervously in the kitchen, a nightly vigil that she had kept up ever since Buffy had told her what was really going on in this town, that she was the Slayer whose duties was to slay the monsters Joyce had only heard of in the past as myths.

Joyce was not without protection, she had picked out several of those 'Halloween' items which had granted her superhuman powers. Dawn had also gained magical artifacts of her own, and even new friends as well. The five Care Bears which should be sleeping together with Dawn in her bed right now were but some of the 'strays' that Dawn had brought back from the Halloween dimension.

The argument that Dawn had with Xander was a fierce one with Xander giving in after Dawn had argued passionately about humane and equality for the Care Bears as well as Ghosts rights which should be observed by those born in a democratic society. After Xander had backed down from Dawn's well planned argument, Dawn had secured the release of her new friends from the stasis of the Halloween dimension with a promise to Xander that she was going to be responsible for their well being.

Joyce's mouth twisted as she remembered her first trip into that Halloween dimension. What had happened to Dawn during that time… Joyce shuddered, feeling a slight chill. It was at that moment that she realized the daughter she had loved and thought was hers was really not hers' at all, that everything that Xander and the others had told her was true, that the next few years of her life, no all of their lives, were prophesized in those graphic novels that Buffy had shown her. But even though she knew now that Dawn was not her biological daughter, the love, the bond between mother and child was not so easily broken, and she'll be damned if she let that Glory creature lay a hand on Dawn.

"Mrs. Summers, are you alright?" A worried voice asked as the pale transparent head of Casper poked out half way from the ceiling to look down at her.

"Oh yes, I am fine." Joyce said quickly straightening herself, banishing all signs of weakness. "It's just that waiting every night for my daughter to come home safely… and with the Glory creature still running around, it worried me a bit."

"Oh you shouldn't be, Giles and the others will protect her. What's more, a group of the tag ships are tailing them, Rommie will send reinforcements if they encountered anything that they couldn't handle." Casper said reassuringly as he floated down to pat Joyce's arms. There was a slight chilly feeling as Casper's hand accidentally passed through her arm, but she smiled at him for his kindness.

Casper was one of the sweetest and well behaved child ghosts she had ever seen, not that she had seen a lot of ghosts, but after her experiences with the ghostly trio, Casper's brothers who were released with Casper from the Halloween dimension, she came to have quite a biased opinion of Casper and those three ghostly troublemakers. Especially after that incident when the trio broke one of her vase she had brought home from the art gallery as well as paint bombed the paintings she had hung along the corridors of her small house.

Those three had since been banished from her house to the main headquarters where it became Rommie's job to keep watch on them. They had learnt pretty quick not to mess with the android after she had in a fit of rare temper, took out one of those Ghost buster proton packs and blasted the three ghosts for several minutes, letting them know real pain for the first time in their undead life. From the last she had heard, Rommie had drafted the three ghosts to guard duties on the grounds of the headquarters to keep them out of mischief.

"I know. Thank you Casper for helping to guard our house." Joyce said with a smile. "I am sorry to trouble you with such work every day and night."

"No, it's alright." Casper said shaking his head quickly. "I love staying here, and as long as that hell goddess is out there, you and Dawn wouldn't be safe. I don't mind patrolling the house, you and Dawn are good people."

"Thank you Casper." Joyce said gratefully, she turned and began switching on the stove as she set a kettle of tea to boil. "So is John still out there? It'll be cold tonight so maybe the three of us can have a cup of hot tea while we wait for Buffy to return."

"I talked to him just now after I had finished the patrol of the house. He said he'll like to stay in the backyard awhile to look at the stars." Casper said. The kind ghost quickly added more details as a thought occurred to him. "He's not slacking off though, he had the mini spaceships in charge of protecting Dawn sweep the area around the house for any hostiles."

"I know Casper." Joyce said with a wistful sigh. "It was nice of him to offer to guard our house every night. I heard from Dawn that he came from another reality where his people have spaceships that travel the stars. He must be missing his home and people very much."

"He has Cortana to keep him company, those two are very close." Casper observed as he drifted upwards and opened the doors to the cupboards, taking down clean cups that were stored within.

"Ah yes Cortana. It was nice of Andrew to create that portable holographic projector so that John could talk to Cortana even without that armor of his." Joyce said with a smile as she walked out of the kitchen leaving the kettle to heat. "Come Casper, help me get down some mats and blankets. You, me, John and Cortana can have a late night stargazing session while we wait for Buffy."

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"Psst… Cheer bear, are you awake?" Tenderheart Bear asked as he gently shook the pink furry arm of Cheer Bear.

"Yeah I am up." Cheer Bear whispered as she quickly extracted herself from Dawn's embrace, making sure not to wake Dawn up.

"Bedtime Bear is still asleep." Grumpy Bear grumbled from the end of the bed as he was trying to shake the blue furred bear awake.

Bedtime Bear just gave a moan and flipped over, revealing the sleeping crescent moon symbol on his tummy.

"Maybe I should kick him where the moon doesn't shine." Grumpy Bear said darkly to the shocked gasp of Wish Bear.

"Grumpy Bear! Really!" Tenderheart Bear said in an aghast tone of voice, quickly padding across the soft bed to Bedtime Bear's side as he shook him gently. "Bedtime Bear, wake up, we got to go now."

"Hrr?" Bedtime Bear groaned as he got up sleepily rubbing his eyes. "Where are we going?"

Grumpy Bear slapped his forehead with his paw and rolled his eyes. "Can we just leave sleepy head here and just go?"

"Come on, there's no need to get impatient." Cheer Bear said with an encouraging smile as she tried to cheer everyone up. "Bedtime Bear remember what we talked about this afternoon? We are going to find some vampires tonight to teach them about love and kindness."

"Yes, if we can show Xander and the rest that vampires can be loving and kind as well, maybe he wouldn't need to kill them every night!" Tenderheart Bear said passionately, a holy fire burning in his eyes. "We must spread the power of love, caring and kindness!"

"Hrr?" Bedtime Bear looked at them with sleepy eyes. "Was the discussion before or after my afternoon nap?"

A swipe of paw from Grumpy Bear was his only warning as Bedtime Bear felt his whole body being dragged by Grumpy Bear towards the window. Bedtime Bear looked sleepily out of the window and turned to look at Grumpy Bear.

"Hrr?" He asked before he was pushed out of the window by Grumpy Bear who slapped something onto his tummy.

"Grumpy Bear!" Cheer Bear said in a shocked tone at her comrade's action.

"Relax, I got this." Grumpy Bear said holding up several stickers. "It's my new invention, levitation stickers. They last for only a minute, but it should be more then enough time for Bedtime Bear to float down by now."

"When did you make this?' Tenderheart Bear asked as he accepted one of the stickers.

"This afternoon after our discussion. We don't have our cloud cars with us, so I had to come up with something new to get us safely to the ground." Grumpy Bear said as he applied a sticker to his body before jumping out of the window. "See you guys belowwwww..."

Wish Bear, Cheer Bear and Tenderheart Bear watched gaping as Grumpy Bear disappeared from view.

"Well he has always been the inventor and mechanic for all of us." Wish Bear said looking at the sticker she was given dubiously. "I suppose we should put our faith in him and hope that the stickers worked."

"What are you guys waiting for? This looks fun!" Cheer Bear said enthusiastically as she stick the sticker to her arm, crawled out of the window and jumped off the stills.

Tenderheart Bear looked at Cheer Bear's falling figure and turned to face Wish Bear uncertainly.

"Well in human culture it is deemed more polite if ladies go first… So erm, Wish Bear, ladies' first?" Tenderheart said swinging his arm chivalrously towards the window.

Wish Bear looked at Tenderheart Bear with narrowed eyes and smacked him over his head.

Dawn moaned in her sleep, not hearing the startled cries of Tenderheart Bear as Wish Bear dragged him out of the window with her.

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"This town is getting dangerous man. I heard Garth and his gang were dusted by the Slayer's gang three days ago, and he was a freaking hundred year old vampire! That's decades older than us man." Milton said with a sigh as he turned to his fang brother. "Maybe we should move out soon."

"Oh come on Mil, the rumors can't be true, they were saying at the bars that there's a Jedi with a red light saber working with the Slayer patrols." Trent said dismissively. "Everyone knew that Jedi's not real."

"A red light saber means a Sith man, enemies of the Jedi and creatures of darkness like us man, only with the Force and the lightsaber." Milton added helpfully and then he frowned. "Which was funny, why would the Slayer team up with someone pretending to be a Sith?"

"I am not sure…" Trent said with a shrug but trailed off, stopping sharply as he saw the five small figures blocking his path.

"Excuse me are you vampires?" The brown furred teddy bear who was in the lead spoke up inquiringly.

Milton rubbed his eyes and looked down again. He bent and poked the cyan colored furry creature nearest to him with his finger and felt warmth of a beating heart. The cyan furred teddy bear quickly stood back, crossing its arms across its chest.

"Please don't touch me there, I am a girl." The teddy bear said in a feminine voice.

"A girl?" Milton said in a shocked tone of voice. "Do they produce teddy bears with sex nowadays?"

"Milton focus!" Trent snapped as he showed his game face, the sharp lines of his human face shifted into the ridged edges of his vampire facial form, his eyes turning yellow. "Yes we are the big and nasty vampires, what do you freaks want?"

"Oh we are here to talk to you about love, caring and kindness." The brown furred bear said helpfully. "I am Tenderheart Bear."

"And I am Wish Bear, this is Cheer Bear, Grumpy Bear and Bedtime Bear." The cyan furred bear that Milton had poked spoke up gently.

"Love, caring and kindness?" Trent growled as launched a kick at the five bears. "Get lost, I've no time for evangelist teddy bears!"

Three of the bears managed to scramble out of the way but two of them were kicked and slammed hard against the nearby rubbish bin and lamppost.

"Bedtime Bear! Cheer Bear! Are you all right?" The rest of the three bears cried anxiously as they rushed to the side of the fallen companions.

"You know, I seemed to have heard the names of those bears before." Milton said wonderingly. "It's long ago, before we were turned…"

Trent ignored Milton as he stepped forward, intent on sending those five teddy bears before him flying to heaven. He had a rotten week altogether, with the raising danger of meeting the Slayer and her demon hunters, he and Milton had lived on blood packets instead of hunting for fresh humans which used to be the once a week activity he shared with his vampire kin. In short, it left him with a lot of pent up rage.

The three teddy bears helped their two companions up, with the one who was introduced as Cheer Bear giving a groan as she massage her back.

"I guess we have no choice." Tenderheart Bear said looking at the enraged Trent. "Care Bears, let Mr Vampire feel the power of Love, Caring and Kindness!"

"That's it! The Care Bears!" Milton said with a grin as he remembered, a dim memory from his childhood. "I used to have a Good Luck Bear too!"

Milton paused as he looked at the five Care Bears lining up in front of his brother determinedly as he mused. "But how did they become real?"

"Care Bears Countdown!" Tenderheart Bear shouting as the symbol of a big red heart on his tummy began to glow.

"5!" The Care Bears chorused.

"4!"

"You freaks!" Trent roared as he charged forward, his vampire senses somehow warning him of coming dangers.

"3! 2! 1!" As the Care Bears finished their countdown, beams of bright light shined from their tummy symbols, merging to form a rainbow that bathed Trent in an ethereal light.

"The love…" Trent gasped as he reverted back to his human face. "The love… No!!!!!"

Milton stood transfixed as he watched his brother in human years and vampire years burst into sparkles of golden dust.

"No!!!" The one who was named Cheer Bear screamed. "We have killed a sentient life!"

The other Care Bears wore similar shocked looks as they did their first killing of another life for the first time in their existence… All except for the blue furred Bedtime Bear who flopped onto the pavement and began snoring softly.

Milton felt rage swept over him as he changed into his vampire visage.

"You will pay!" Milton roared as he charged at the four Care Bears who remain frozen in shock.

There was a whisper of wind and Milton had no time to turn around before he was beheaded and turned to dust.

Buffy and her team stood over the still petrified Care Bears who were staring unseeingly into the distance. She growled as she looked down at Dawn's 'pets'.

"What the hell are the five of you doing out here?" Buffy said as she clenched her teeth, trying her best to look intimidating. "I thought we agreed that you guys can't leave the house without someone with you! What happens if someone saw you walking around! And what if I wasn't around to save you guys from that vampire?"

"…"

"…"

Buffy paused as she looked down at the shell shocked Care Bears, a guilty look flashing across her face as she turned to Willow and the others.

"Was I too harsh on them?" Buffy asked hesitantly.

"Actually I think they were already like that before you began The Speech." Willow said patting Buffy's arms comfortingly.

"Are you guys alright? Do you need healing?" Andrew offered helpfully as he bent down to look at Tenderheart Bear.

Tenderheart Bear turned to face Andrew with a horror struck look on his face. "We killed someone… We killed someone…"

"Oh for the love of God." Giles said in exasperation. "I think they are traumatized by their first kill."

"Huh." Andrew said backing away. "Well I don't do that kind of healing. The Unicorn esper stone only allows me to heal physical wounds."

"What should we do?" Jonathan asked looking at the frozen and psychotic Care Bears who were mumbling to themselves. "I doubt we can just bring them to a psychologist."

"Oh I know one that fits the bill." Buffy said as a smirk crossed her face. "Since Dawn wants them so much, she can be their Mom _and_ Therapist."

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Back at the Summers' house, in the dark room on the second floor. A sweat soaked Dawn Summers woke out of her sleep as she gasped at the nightmare she had experienced.

"Luckily it was a nightmare." Dawn gasped as she placed her hand on her rapidly beating heart. "Strange, I can't remember what it was now, but I was sure Buffy was in it and is doing horrible things to me…"

A thought stuck her as she quickly switched on her bed light and looked around her bed.

"Hmm… Tenderheart Bear? Cheer Bear? Where did you guys go?" Dawn called out as she looked around the room. "They are not around… Oh no! Did I crush them in my sleep?"

A horrified Dawn Summers quickly climbed out of her bed as she began diving into her blankets to check. Finding nothing, she began a frantic search all over the house for her missing… Care Bears…

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**Author's Note:** To my readers of Master of the Forbidden Seals, hope this filler would make you smile a little while you guys wait for me to finish the next chapter of MFS. I can't promise when the next update is because I am rushing my final semester of studies now. I can only promise that I'll do my best.

Oh Yeah! Happy Earth Day Everyone! I think it already passed, but what the heck? It's the thought that counts right? ;)

Ps. I am following the Casper cartoons and comics where the ghosts are able to physically react with objects in the real world and eat and drink.


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